Should "The Star-Spangled Banner" Be Our National Anthem?
Diane Ravitch posted the lyrics to "America, The Beautiful" this morning in celebration of Independence Day. That sparked a debate in the comments about the relative merits of various patriotic songs, and whether any would serve us better than "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the National Anthem.
Let me weigh in here as a music teacher on some of the choices:
The Star Spangled Banner
Pros: As far as I know, no other nation uses this melody for its national anthem. The story of Francis Scott Key's visit to the British flagship during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812 is a compelling tale. I've always liked that the anthem ends in an evocative question: is the flag still waving? That's led to some wonderful discussions with my students over the years about patriotism, the power of symbols, and the meaning of the flag.
Cons: It really is impossibly hard to sing: an octave and a fifth, and the highest notes land on really bad vowels ("glare," "free" - yuck). And too often, it's performed in B-flat, which makes the highest note F, which is just way, way too high. The lyrics also glorify war a bit